Friday, February 19, 2010

Principi e principesse

Please excuse the break in the news this week. Here's the weather: we've been under it.

In the meantime, while my household recovers from the various bugs and/or flu floating around, I thought I'd quickly point you toward this lovely Italian silhouette animation.

This is from a film called "Principi e principesse" from 2000 and yes, I'm aware the cover shows a different title but both iMDB and YouTube call the film by this title, not the one printed on promotional poster. The film has a collection of six magical short stories and while the whole thing is in Italian, you don't need to speak or understand any to enjoy it (though I'm sure that would add to it - it's obviously very funny).It's a very different take on The Frog Prince and I suggest you 'fast forward' to the one minute mark where the action begins. There's a bit of Italian dialogue right after the frog appears that I suggest you be patient through but after that it speeds up considerably. You'll very quickly get the idea and should enjoy the surprise conclusion*.

The style is somewhat reminiscent of Lotte Reiniger's silhouette animation but clearly has a more modern sensibility behind it. I've seen a short article on it a few months back but haven't been able to relocate it in my limited time (if anyone spots it, feel free to add a link in the comments).

Enjoy!

(I'll be back to sniffing out fairy tale news for you just as soon as my sniffer is available again.)

* You may be interested to know there is a Romanian fairy tale in which has a similar ending. You can read it HERE.I'm not sharing the title as it's a spoiler for the film. ;)